Читать книгу The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey онлайн

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At first glance, this fight for the freedom of the open moors might seem a little disconnected from the Pennine Way, which was opened over three decades after the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass took place; but the genesis of Britain’s first long-distance path lies in the struggle for the right to walk in the hills – a struggle that defined the modern access movement and ultimately secured the freedoms that we now enjoy today. It’s no coincidence that the Pennine Way begins in Britain’s first national park, the Peak District, created by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which also, of course, paved the way for long-distance paths. A little over 50 years later, the Peak District was also where the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 was officially rolled out, extending a right of open access to mapped mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land and opening up further significant areas of the Pennines. Indeed, in the Peak District National Park alone, it more than doubled the amount of accessible open country to over 200 square miles. As I began to learn on my journey northwards, the Pennine Way’s story is about far more than a simple path.